Infographic: IT Planning and Cities of the Future

A recent survey found that effective IT planning and implementation by city governments could result in better quality of life.

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that New Yorkers are living three years longer than they did a decade ago, and according to a new survey by InformationWeek on "future cities," if New York City Hall pursues technology policies geared toward urban transformation going forward, New Yorkers also could enjoy better quality of life.

According to InformationWeek, the survey, which was completed in October by 198 IT leaders in municipal government, "gauged the potential benefits of effective IT planning and implementation by city governments." And 36 percent of respondents said "better quality of life" was a potential outcome of such initiatives.

Because New York's roads, subways, water system, and other infrastructure are more than 100 years old in places -- and some communications networks and systems go back to the early days of the Bell Telephone system -- the city "serves as good example of the challenges faced in future cities planning," InformationWeek reported.